Imagine you’re in the midst of a period of personal tumult, you’ve overextended yourself with activities to the point it’s wearing on your very physical being, and you have to pull it all together to write and record an album of new material. On top of all that, you used to be a Beatle, meaning that pretty much the whole world is focused on your every musical utterance.
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That’s where George Harrison was when he made his 1974 album, Dark Horse, released 50 years ago this month. Unsurprisingly, it’s a little rough-and-tumble at times. But it also provides a fascinating glimpse at what Harrison might have been had he chosen a confessional singer/songwriting post-Beatles career, instead of burrowing into his cosmic mysteries.
Keep It Dark
George Harrison earned a reputation as a recluse of sorts in his post-Beatles days, someone who wanted none of the spotlight his immense talent afforded him. That view of him doesn’t square with the Harrison who was a dynamo of activity for the first five years of his solo career.
Even by the frantic standard he set during that time period, the year 1974 was extremely excessive. Harrison took on a producer’s role on albums by both his old friend Ravi Shankar and the British duo Splinter. Those duties dovetailed with the new record label he was starting, as he shed his ties to The Beatles’ Apple label.
Speaking of the Fab Four, their never-ending legal squabbles hadn’t much let up by that time either. Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr were battling businessman/manager Allen Klein, a man that trio had once backed against the wishes of Paul McCartney in a squabble that hastened the end of the group.
Most damaging of all, at least to Harrison’s psyche, was his separation from wife Pattie Boyd, who had taken up with Eric Clapton. Harrison hadn’t exactly been the picture of fidelity, as he had been conducting his own extramarital affairs around that time, including one with Maureen Starkey, Ringo Starr’s then-wife. Perhaps it’s not surprising Harrison began hitting the bottle hard to cope.
In the middle of all this, he not only was frantically trying to finish the recording of Dark Horse, but he was also setting out on his first major tour as a solo act. He didn’t even finish the album before the live jaunt began, and the strain on his voice from the touring is evident on some of the songs on the album, especially the title cut.
Giving Dark Horse Another Listen
People tend to pile on this record without really giving it a fair treatment, instead settling for the old “Dark Hoarse” jibes. The fact the title track, which Harrison labors through with his voice clearly in tatters, is the song that still gets the most airplay from the album doesn’t exactly help its reputation.
If you can set aside Harrison’s wobbly vocals, Dark Horse strikes quite an intriguing pose. It finds him mostly steering clear of the spiritual concerns on which he focused throughout the bulk of his solo career. The bust-up with Boyd is front and center in his writing, so much so that his sly rewrite of “Bye Bye Love” finds himself openly referring to her and Clapper.
After clearing everybody’s palette with the unassuming instrumental “Hari’s on Tour (Express),” Harrison dives headlong into his dark night of the soul on the anguished “Simply Shady.” On “So Sad,” he writes in the third person about his turmoil, as if observing himself as a case study to be inspected and pitied.
Because of his vocals, the title track has the opposite effect of its intent. While the lyrics detail the narrator’s independence and resilience, George’s ravaged voice betrays the damage done. Had Harrison gone all-in and stuck with the theme all the way through instead of bailing out on mood-breaking songs like “Ding Dong” and “It Is ‘He’ (Jai Si Krishna),” the consensus on Dark Horse might be quite different.
The album and the tour represented the last burst of Harrison’s professional hyperactivity, as he retreated from it all into a more benign period in his life, sparked by his new relationship with future wife Olivia Arias. Dark Horse offers an intriguing look at the storm before that calm.
Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns/Getty Images
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